The Definitive Way to Download iCloud Photos (2024)

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In today’s digital age, we capture countless moments through our smartphones and store them in the cloud. Apple’s iCloud platform has become a popular choice for safely storing and accessing our treasured photos. However, many users are unsure about how to download photos from iCloud. If you find yourself in this situation, fret not!

This comprehensive guide will walk you through the step-by-step process of downloading photos from iCloud, ensuring that you can easily retrieve and enjoy your precious memories at any time. Whether you’re looking to access old photos or transfer them to a new device, read on to discover how to get photos from iCloud and keep them close to your heart.

iCloud is a great tool for backing up your photos and other data, but it’s not perfect. If you are still wondering how to download all photos from iCloud onto your PC, you might face a few problems you need to know before proceeding:

✘ iCloud Photos aren’t loading on your PC
✘ Dates change when moving iCloud photos to a PC
? Why won’t iCloud for Windows install on my PC?
? Why are my photos taking so long to download from iCloud?

But please don’t worry! We are here to solve all these problems and explain how to get pictures from iCloud.

This article will be helpful if you own a Windows computer. If you own a Mac, follow the official Apple guide on how to download photos from iCloud to Mac.

Choose how to upload photos from iCloud and jump to the method you prefer:

How to download photos from iCloud – CopyTrans Cloudly
Download photos from iCloud – CopyTrans Backup Extractor
iCloud pictures – FAQ
How to get photos from iCloud – iCloud.com
How to get pictures from iCloud – iCloud for Windows

How to download photos from iCloud

with CopyTrans Cloudly

CopyTrans Cloudly is designed as an alternative to iCloud for Windows. This software is intuitive, easy to install, and allows you to recover all your photos and videos saved on iCloud. The best part is that it doesn’t create duplicates, so you can stop and then resume the download at any time!

Advantages of CopyTrans Cloudly

Restore permanently deleted videos and photos from iCloud on PC
Download all iCloud photos in a few clicks
Save your iCloud photos to an external hard drive
Upload all your photos and videos in one click
Add photos in JPG, HEIC, or PNG format to iCloud
Keep your album structure

So, how to download photos from iCloud to PC? Just follow these steps:

Download and install CopyTrans Cloudly

Get CopyTrans Cloudly

Run CopyTrans Cloudly. You will see a login screen. Enter your Apple ID and password.

Wait until your iCloud Photo Library is loaded. You will see the main app screen after. To download iCloud photos to PC, click on Download:

Select which folder you want to download your library to:
TIP: if you have a question: how to backup iCloud photos to an external drive, then CopyTrans Cloudly can help you with it too.

Voila! All you need to do now is wait until all your photos and videos are downloaded.

YouTube guide

More useful functions of CopyTrans Cloudly:

✓ Delete all photos from iCloud
✓ Upload photos and videos to iCloud
✓ Rescue deleted photos

How to download iCloud photos

Or check out our comparison table:

Download photos from iCloud

from iCloud backup

If for some reason, you cannot find your photos in iCloud, there is still a chance they might be waiting for you in some backup on or off your PC. To help you here, we developed a product called CopyTrans Backup Extractor. The program will search for iCloud and iTunes backups automatically and download iCloud photos to PC. Here is how to proceed:

✔️ find all the backups automatically;

✔️ save all the backup data on your PC

✔️ compatible with different backups: iCloud, iTunes, CopyTrans Shelbee, or other programs;

Download CopyTrans Backup Extractor

Download and install CopyTrans Backup Extractor:
Get CopyTrans Backup Extractor
Choose Log in to iCloud for more backups on the welcome screen.

There you are! After a short search, CopyTrans Backup Extractor will display all your backups, both on PC and in iCloud. iCloud backups are marked with a cloud icon, while PC backups have a folder icon next to them.

Choose the backup that contains your photos. If the backup is encrypted, enter the backup password to proceed. Click on Photos.

Finally, select the folder you want to extract the photos to and wait for the process to complete. Voila! You can now click on Open containing folder to see all of the extracted photos.
Your photos are successfully out of the backup! If you want to have these photos on your iPhone, here is a guide on how to transfer photos from your computer to your iPhone.

iCloud pictures

FAQ

What is iCloud and how does it relate to photos?

iCloud is Apple’s cloud storage and computing service, and it allows you to store photos and videos and access them from any of your Apple devices.

Can I download all of my iCloud photos to my iPhone or iPad?

Yes, you can download all of your iCloud photos to your iPhone or iPad by enabling the iCloud Photo Library feature in your device’s settings.

Is there a way to download all of my iCloud photos to my Windows PC?

Yes, you can download all of your iCloud photos to your Windows PC by visiting iCloud.com, but this method has it cons. We offer you a better solution: CopyTrans Cloudly. Click download and you will have a copy of your photos on your PC.

How can I transfer photos from iCloud to my Mac?

You can transfer photos from iCloud to your Mac by enabling the iCloud Photo Library feature in your Mac’s Photos app settings.

Can I download photos and videos from iCloud to my Windows PC?

Yes, you can download photos and also videos from iCloud to your Windows PC by visiting iCloud.com or using CopyTrans Cloudly.

How can I download a shared album from iCloud to my Apple device?

How to get photos from iCloud

via iCloud.com

How to see photos in iCloud? On iCloud.com you can quickly see the overview of the photos you have in iCloud. You can also use it on your Mac, unlike the other two alternatives. However, iCloud.com is of no use to you if you want to download or delete all of your photos and videos and not spend an eternity on them.

Disadvantages

✘ no way to download or select all photos at once
✘ has a limit of choosing 1000 items

Advantages

✓ you can view and select photos

Anyway, let’s start with the instructions:

Go to the iCloud browser version and log in using your Apple ID.

Once logged in, click on Photos.

Now you can view all your photos via the browser.
Select each photo and tap on the cloud icon in the top right corner to download images one by one from your iCloud account to the computer.
Note: If you have less than 1000 photos in iCloud, you can easily download all the photos by pressing Ctrl + A, then clicking on the “Download” button. If you have more than 1000 photos, however, it becomes a bit more tricky. You will have to track which 1000 photos you have already downloaded, then select another 1000, and so on. CopyTrans Cloudly you can download everything at once 🙂

You can also select multiple photos in iCloud by selecting moments. Click on the small plus sign in the top right corner of one of the moments. Voila! All the pictures in your moment are selected. You can download photos from iCloud to PC.

Once your photos and videos have been downloaded, you will have to extract them from the folder your browser downloads files to (for me, it is This PC >> Downloads). The browser version of iCloud doesn’t give you the option to download all your photos and videos to a folder of your choice.

TIP:

Once the downloading process is finished, you can delete all your photos from iCloud and forget about them forever or continue using them. I haven’t been a fan of iCloud Photo Library since the time I ran out of space on both my iCloud and iPhone and couldn’t do much about it. I didn’t know about CopyTrans Photo at the time, so I had to manually download each photo to my PC since, back then, iCloud didn’t support selecting multiple photos.

Anyway, to delete all the pictures from your iCloud, you’ll have to select all your photos one by one again (or by selecting entire moments as explained above) and click on “Delete”. Before deleting, make sure all your photos have been saved to your computer.

How to get pictures from iCloud

with iCloud for Windows

iCloud for Windows is a nice tool provided by Apple that lets you download iCloud photos to PC in bulk. It also lets you upload photos to iCloud (in case you’re interested in that).

The drawbacks are:

✘ it doesn’t preserve the album structure of your iCloud Library
✘ cannot boast stability
✘ may not download all the photos in the original quality
✘ iCloud for Windows just doesn’t install or returns unknown errors

It will, however, help you download your photos. So, here are the instructions:

Download the iCloud for Windows tool and install it onto your computer.
Open iCloud for Windows from the Start menu.

Tap on Options and select everything you need. Click on Done to download iCloud photos.

Then click on Apply and close the main window.

Next, open the system tray and click on the cloud icon.

How to back up iCloud photos? Hit Download Photos to initiate the process.
Your photos are now being downloaded to C:\Users\&USER NAME&\Pictures\iCloud Photos\Downloads

If you have iCloud Photo Library enabled on your iPhone or iPad, you can simply select all photos and send a link to download them from your computer. Here’s how:

Go to your iPhone and tap on the Photos app. Click on Select in the top right corner.

Tap, hold, and swipe to select all pictures.
After you’ve selected all the photos you need, click on the Share button in the bottom left corner.

Swipe left on the bottom icons to get to the icon you need, then select Copy iCloud link to get photos from iCloud.

After this, simply paste this link somewhere (send it to your email, for example) and click on it from your PC. Make sure you aren’t signed in to iCloud in your browser. Click on Download and it will transfer iCloud photos to PC
Click on Download again. The photos will be downloaded in a .zip archive. You can extract them to a folder of your choice after the download is completed.

iCloud photos

Conclusion

It is a common problem: you have an iPhone, but you can’t download photos from iCloud to your PC. It seems like there are no solutions on the internet. However, in this article, we have shown you 4 different methods with all their pros and cons, and one of the options is CopyTrams Cloudly – a program that allows users to download all their photos from iCloud with just a few clicks. With CopyTrams Cloudly you don’t need any special skills or knowledge about computers – everything is very easy and intuitive!

Download CopyTrans Cloudly

How to delete all photos from iCloud
How to recover permanently deleted photos from iCloud
How to select all photos on iPhone
How to download photos from iPhone

	CopyTrans Cloudly	iCloud.com	iCloud for Windows
Downloading all photos	Downloads everything at once	Downloads only 1000 items at a time	Downloads everything at once
Preserving album structure	Yes	No	No (downloads by year)
Downloading originals	Yes	Yes	Not always
The incremental download of new photos (without creating duplicates)	Yes	No	No
Deleting all photos	Deletes everything at once	Deletes only 1000 items at a time	No
Retrieving permanently deleted photos	Yes	No	No
Speed (depends on the Internet connection speed)	15-30 minutes for every 5 GB	Eternity	1,5-3 hours for every 5 GB
Viewing and selecting photos before downloading	No	Yes	No
Using on a Mac	No	Yes	No
Uploading photos to iCloud	Yes	Yes	Yes